Cake, Batter, and Bowl

Chicken Sausage Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Main Dishes

Chicken Sausage Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Chicken Sausage Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Sometimes I get in a dinner rut and forget how much I enjoy cooking with certain ingredients. I was recently reminded that I hadn’t used chicken sausage in a long time after seeing a few delicious and quick meal recipes on Meghan’s fantastic blog, You’re Gonna Bake It After All. Chicken sausage is so versatile and easy to use when you forget to defrost chicken or don’t have time to cut up and sauté the raw stuff! Since it’s precooked, all you have to do is warm it up in the microwave. It’s also great for hot summer nights when you don’t want to heat up the kitchen. So, I decided to try a new brand at Costco a few weeks ago (Benetino’s Smoked Mozzarella Chicken Sausages with Artichokes and Garlic – yum!) and made a delicious pasta dish with it!

This pasta is on the lighter side because it doesn’t have a thick sauce, but it’s still very flavorful since it’s packed with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. My favorite kind of pasta dishes are those that contain both the veggie and protein components of your meal all in one pot!

Chicken Sausage Pasta with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
8 cups frozen broccoli florets
5 chicken sausages, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. Warm broccoli florets and chicken sausages in the microwave according to the package directions. Toss pasta with broccoli florets, chicken sausages, olive oil, vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 467 calories, 14.6g fat, 11.1g fiber, 29.4g protein per serving
Cost: $1.48 per serving

Eggplant and Orzo Stuffed Red Peppers

Whenever I ask Apolinaras where he’d like to go out to dinner, he inevitability suggests his favorite BBQ place in Boston, Blue Ribbon. I have to admit that I’m a pretty big fan too, and actually just writing this post is making me crave some pulled pork and burnt...

Gnocchi with Pancetta, Mushrooms, and Gruyere

Apolinaras and I finally checked out Foundry on Elm, a newish hot spot in our neighborhood, on one of our recent date nights. It was packed on the Tuesday evening we went and we could see why after we tried the creative cocktails. Mine was called the Bee’s Knees and...

Spinach, Bacon, and Blue Cheese Stuffed Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts

I’m often asked how I manage to post original recipes so often while working long hours and hitting the gym the majority of the days of the week. Well, what I usually do is work in bursts. I may perfect three or four recipes in one weekend and then take a break. I...

Blackened Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Blue Cheese and Bacon

Apolinaras is pretty spoiled in the culinary department.  Last weekend I made a bunch of tofu fried rice for my weekday lunches, and also cooked up a separate batch of chicken breasts for him because he likes to loudly proclaim the fried rice is the worst dish I...

Sweet Chili Apricot Shrimp Skewers over Israeli Couscous

Apolinaras really enjoyed the last Israeli couscous dish I made. In fact, he said it would have been a 10 if I hadn’t included the spinach in the salad, haha. He snuck another box into our cart at Trader Joe’s recently, which I thought was pretty cute, and since he’s...

Mediterranean Chicken Sausage and Chickpea Skillet

We’re back! Our trip to Lithuania was amazing and I’m going to work on sorting through all our pictures this weekend so I can share a recap with you. There were two things I couldn’t wait to do once we returned home though – one was sleeping in our own bed because we...

Toasted Almond and Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

Please don’t judge this recipe by the picture. It’s not the best looking pasta dish to begin with and my hopeless photography skills definitely don’t help do it any justice, but I can guarantee you that it’s worth making! I was recently asked whether I usually end up...

Moroccan Spiced Chicken

I’ve gotten in a little summer routine in the kitchen lately. We can’t get enough zucchini and yellow squash and every Sunday I end up sautéing a bunch of the veggies (7 yesterday!) in my huge wok to enjoy alongside some chicken and carby side dish of some kind....